The Essay Explores The Electronic Bill Of Lading's Role In International Trade Law.

Functions of Electronic Bill of Lading

International Trade law generally involves the trade between two countries on international basis that includes transportation of the goods through various modes, international trade law often includes the rules and customs which includes often governs the trade between countries beyond international boundaries.  International transport as part of the trade also includes the role of contracts as a part of legal functions in the form of contract between the seller and buyer which is conducted in the form of documentation in the form of Bill of lading, which becomes the evidence of the delivery of the goods through the carriers in case of international transportation. In international trade the proper documentation gives a validity to file a legal claim in case the goods are being lost or destroyed in case of transit so that the rights of the seller and buyer are both intact.  The following paper highlights on the role of electronic bill of lading in international trade law, usefulness of the e-bill of lading, benefits of the e-bill of lading, limitations of using the same as well as risks associated with the e-bills, their contribution to the international trade law by providing protection against default on payment or perpetration of fraud. and followed by conclusion.

In the International trade law, the legality of the contract is often formed through the contract in the form of Bill of lading, it is often used by the carrier while transporting the goods in order to acknowledge the receipt of cargo for the shipment purposes. These are the most important documents which are often used in the international trade in order to ensure the receiving of the payments and merchandise by the exporter and the seller. Bill of lading ensures both the policy and an invoice and is a kind of negotiable instruments. It is acts as the conclusive receipt of the transaction and is also considered as an evidence in case of contract of carriage. Since with the Bill of lading being on paper there is a possibility of fraud being done, so with the modernization of the trade practices on an international level and the world turning into digitization the e-Bill of lading is being introduced by the government of United Kingdom through which the transactions are being considered on an international as well as domestic level. The United Kingdom also ratified the e-CMR Protocol which has enabled both the transactions using digital waybills, it ensures to conduct the safe transit and payment of the transactions, the very purpose the digitization is to improve the channels of synchronisation and communications between both the parties through automatic processing and decision making on the basis of fact. Since there can be fraud which can be done through the bill of lading in the paper form so ensuring it as the electronic transaction can be beneficial and safer for safe transaction. Besides that, the COVID Pandemic has also made the shipping and transaction industry to adopt electronic bills of lading and making it another accepted option in the shipping industry. Moreover, the obligations undertaken by the career to ensure that the goods have been delivered safely, completely depends upon the terms of the Bill of Lading, the same has been held in the case Glyn Mills & Co and west India Dock Co. court held: nature and extent of the obligations undertaken by the ship owner to consider a safe delivery of the goods to the contracted destination totally depends upon the terms of bill of lading which have been previously decided in the contract with the shipper where the assignee of the  bill of lading has notice of the same and thus is considered to be bounded by the which have been introduced in to the stipulations mentioned in the contract in order to protect his rights against any kind of loss of fraud. The main purpose of the bill of lading be it either in paper form of in the form e- bill of lading is to protect the rights of both the parties also to provide damages or compensation in case of failure to deliver the assignment on time. The same has been held in the case Gard Shipping AS- v- Clearlake Shipping Pte Ltd (Comm)Grade shipping, a voyage charter party agreed to let crude oil tanker to Clearlake shipping Pte Ltd.  From one safe port to another safe port, no formal document was ever drawn up but a fixture recap was decided to be paid up upon breach, the charter party varied to deliver a second voyage which gave rise to the dispute. Court held:  in the present case the owners were entitled to only the ordinary rate of demurrage which was set in the fixture recap as opposed to the escalated rate. Moreover, the bill of lading also ensures the completion of contract as well as the safe transit of the goods upon handing over the documents relating to the bill of lading.  The same was held in the case of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. -v- Glencore International AG, court in this case considered what could be the safe point where effective delivery of the goods through the electronic bill of lading can be made and whether or not an electronic system of pin codes can be considered to be sufficient substitute for bill of ladings or not. Glencore made the shipment of Cargo which was carried through the Mediterranean Sea, the cargo was supposed to deliver three containers which were lost by the carriage, which was contracted on the eBill of lading and thus pin code was provided. Court held, while adopting the new technologies for the purpose of international trade, every company should ensure itself of the legal implications of the same and the companies must protect themselves contractually upon the adoption of the new technologies.   Benefits of using eBills of lading With the liberalization and privatization many markets are emerging along with various buyers and sellers which often lack government support, so without any proper authorization and maintenance of records it can be difficult to keep a check on the on-going activities which could result in the increase of frauds and risks in trading of the goods with the fraudulent delivery of the bill of lading in the paper format, so with the globalization in the international trade the system of electronic bill of lading in the form of eBill if lading has been introduced, which have its own benefits if using the same. One of the benefits of using the e Bills is that it does not include the cost of transport which is almost around 10 to 15% which may often result by the use of paper documents. One of the main reasons for introducing the electronic bill of lading is that the cargo which is represented in the bill usually reaches to the port prior to the bill of lading and in case of absence of the proper bill of lading there may be chances that the carrier may face the dilemma of delivering the goods without any proper bill of lading to the owner, which in most of the case may increase the chances of committing the fraud, which can be avoided now through the introduction of the eBill of lading. Another benefit of introducing the electronic bill of lading can be that it would help in getting rid of those delays which are often caused due to the paper bills of lading. Apart from that this eBill of lading would help in reducing the delay caused in documents being transferred from one party to another as the parties do not require to wait for long until they receive the bill of lading in the physical form. Further, it would also minimise documentation cost and may maximize the efficiency of the transactions.The introduction of the electronic bill of lading has now changed the way the international trade takes place as eBL services have opened a modern and digital approach towards the BL transactions, is often considered superior in case of paper, courier in terms of speed cost and security. It also provides greater peace of mind and security as well since these are stored and transferred in the secure cloud or through peer-to-peer block chain platform and are in encrypted form and digitally signed without any risk of being stolen, manipulated or being forged. Apart from that the eBill of trading also addresses the flaws which the traditional paper system contains such as it results in lowering the administrative burden of trade where the cargo is being subjected to the multiple transfers of the ownership and if in case any amendments required to be done, it can be done cost efficiently, moreover an electronic paper system makes the electronic form of bill of lading more secured and systematic. It can also help in cutting the administrative costs of trade and will help in reducing those situations where carriers often discharge their cargo against any letter of indemnity.                     Limitations and Risks Associated with eBill of lading  Although the introduction of the e Bill of lading has been considered to be the most beneficial one for the international trade and its transactions. The main purpose of the e-bill of lading is that it must digitize the major functions of the Bill of lading in its paper form namely its acceptance as a receipt in legal form and evidence of containing the carriage contract as a document of title. Main purpose of bill of lasing remains the same as to provide the title to the goods. The only problem with the eBill of lading remains is that of the negotiability which it lacks and if its successfully implemented and is been accepted then it is required to match up to the level of that of the paper bill of lading, which the e-bill of lading somewhere fails. The challenges or limitations which could even bind or limit the scope the eBill of lading firstly, it has to find a way to become equivalent in terms of the paper bill of lading. Secondly, various amendments have to be done in order to replicate the laws to suit the issuance of the and use of the electronic bill of lading. Lastly, the transactions through electronic usage are required to popularise in those areas where the goods are required to be transported through the usage of bill of lading. Apart from that due to the complexities it contains the ebill of lading is often considered as an analogous document of title if it is compared to the traditional bill of lading, it could negotiability of the electronic bill of lading result into the endorsement of the bill. Moreover, with the e-bill of lading it will though ensure the security functions to the conventional ways of transactions. It is a well-known fact that the major drawback of the ebill of lading is its lack of negotiability, and it is devoid of the same on the ground that it is intangible. Moreover, since under the ebill of lading no endorsement can be made and it is a well-established fact that under the electronic bill of lading notions of indorsement, delivery or possession do not fit in. since the ebill is a tangible document than if it does not match with the word holder and in case of loss of destruction of the data contained in the eBill. The problem that is mostly encountered while introducing any eBill of lading that it can be easily forged in the globalization world where the technology is very advanced in such a case it will be easier to either transmit or forged the pin number of the e Bill of lading. While the encryption of the messages can be an issue the decryption of the messages will not be an issue to breach the documents and consider a misuse. For example, when a carrier surrenders its goods which it’s supposed to transmit upon the presentation of the bill of lading he does not require to prove the authentication of the such documents except in exceptional cases, where it’s a precondition mentioned. With regard to the electronic bill of lading, whatever mechanism is used for its storage, transmission and the generation the same kind of protection should be provided to the carrier so that he is not suffered by any losses, and the failure to do the same would result into the refusal by the cargos in the near future to take the delivery of the goods as there will be a constant risk which is going to be associated in case of the e-Bill of lading which could make the e-bill of lading system a complete failure. Conclusion

The above paper highlights on the functions of electronic bill of lading in international trade law, usefulness of the e-bill of lading, benefits of the e-bill of lading, limitations of using the same as well as risks associated with the e-bills and followed by conclusion. While the Bill of lading is an important instrument which are required to be given by the carrier at the time of delivery of the documents, so bill of lading merely do serve as a receipt of acknowledgement that the goods have been uploaded on the cargo and are safely delivery to the destination port.  it is necessary to protect the documents associated with the same from any kind of fraud or any further misuse by any third party. For this, the electronic bill of lading has been introduced with the aim to provide the easer of the transactions to the carriers and also to avoid any kind of delay, it has though become more reliable and speedy form of alternative of documentation. With the introduction of the e-bill of lading the safety and security can be the major reasons of using the electronic bill of lading in case of any form of transaction but with the advancement of the technologies and the globalization in the expanding form, the treat that is associated with the same is that of its being counterfeited. Therefore, it has become important to introduce a proper infrastructure to protect the transactions as well as the electronic bill of lading in order to ensure its continuity and safety.

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